Machine and equipment assets, generally, are engineered to perform particular tasks as part of a business process. For example, assets can include, among other things and without limitation, industrial manufacturing equipment on a production line, drilling equipment for use in mining operations, wind turbines that generate electricity on a wind farm, transportation vehicles, and the like. As another example, assets may include devices that aid in diagnosing patients such as imaging devices (e.g., X-ray or MRI systems), monitoring equipment, and the like. The design and implementation of these assets often takes into account both the physics of the task at hand, as well as the environment in which such assets are configured to operate.
Low-level software and hardware-based controllers have long been used to drive machine and equipment assets. However, the rise of inexpensive cloud computing, increasing sensor capabilities, and decreasing sensor costs, as well as the proliferation of mobile technologies have created opportunities for creating novel industrial and healthcare based assets with improved sensing technology and which are capable of transmitting data that can then be distributed throughout a network. As a consequence, there are new opportunities to enhance the business value of some assets through the use of novel industrial-focused hardware and software.
One such industry that can benefit from cloud computing is aviation. On average, there are over 90,000 flights that occur each day originating from over 9,000 airports worldwide. At any given time there are approximately 10,000 planes in the air around the world. While an aircraft is flying, dozens or even hundreds of parameters may be continuously monitored and stored. For example, flight control inputs, throttle movement, speed and altitude, GPS location, oil pressure, system warnings, and the like, may be captured and recorded. Traditionally, aircraft data was stored in a crash-survivable flight data recorder (FDR) and was only accessed in the event of a serious incident with the aircraft. However, as technology has progressed, flight data has become more accessible. One type of flight data that is often analyzed is an aircraft status report.